My Road To Hackintosh Land…

DeeAnn Hopings

I originally started writing this article in 2020. By December it was nearly complete, but then it sat for some time due to other commitments, interests and attempts to schedule vaccine appointments. But, in the interim, there are rumors that suggest what I discuss below may actually happen.

Although I knew about Apple and Macintoshes from the beginning, my first actual contact came when I convinced my company to buy a IIci for me in 1990. I was transferred to a plant we had in Illinois and several months later I was assigned to creating operational and quality assurance manuals. Note that this was outside of my background as a mechanical engineer. However, I saw this as an interesting opportunity and I was able to leverage that into getting the IIci for desktop publishing. It was a bit of a dire situation as we scored the worst of 7 plants at our last quality systems audit by our corporate staff. At 35%, there was no where to go but up. A year and a half later, we were the second of the 7 plants at 85%. At that point I was offered a position with another company and I left, but the very positive impression that the Macintosh left with me stayed for a long time.

The first Macintosh in our home arrived in 2011 when my wife purchased an iMac. In 2014 I decided to take the plunge. By training and experience, I tend to be fairly thorough in my research. I like to be able to choose the components in my machine, but the way Apple structures their product line, that is very difficult. Basically the choices were the iMac, the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro. To me, while the All-In-One design that Apple pretty much pioneered is good looking and minimizes desk space, the problem is what happens if the monitor has a problem? It becomes a service trip as opposed to just purchasing a new monitor. Also, as Apple continued on the path to Thinner/Smaller, upgrade paths decreased. For me, that removed the iMac and the Mini from contention. The cylindrical Mac Pro did have the desired flexibility, but at a price. I had pretty much resigned myself to purchasing a fairly stout iMac in the $2500 to $2700 range. The base Mac Pro “trash can” would have started at $3000 and climbed from there. Configured as I would like, it would have wound up more like $4000.

For the record, I tend not to buy low end computers. I believe that is the way to a short and unhappy life. Over time, programs and operating systems tend not to get smaller and they also increase the demands on the processor and the graphical subsystem. So, I tend to buy somewhere in the mid to upper range.

I was within a few days of purchasing an iMac when I stumbled across an article about people building Hackintoshes. I had not heard of that before, but I was intrigued. The time was 2014. To make sure we are all on the same page, a Hackintosh is a machine based on generic Intel-based hardware that has been set up to run the MacOS.

As I researched, I came across various reasons why people built Hackintoshes.

Challenge: Computer enthusiasts who like doing something different and against the grain.

Price: In countries that have significant import duties, an already expensive item becomes even more so.

Haters: Well, only in the sense that they object to Apple’s pricing but are thoroughly on board with how the operating system works. However, I think this is somewhat misguided in that when you purchase an Apple system, the price has to cover the hardware, hardware development and software development.

Me: Structure of the product line.

Now I have no idea as to how the these break down in terms of percentages, but they all seem to be significant. However, in my case, I think Apple made a mistake. There is a big jump from the iMac and Mac Mini to the Mac Pro. Note that this was years before the iMac Pro. Anyway, what if they had produced a model midway between the two camps? It would combine the best features without the prohibitive cost of the Mac Pro (now starting at $6000 for the base “cheese grater”). To me, it should be in the $3,000 to $3,500 range so it would slot in between a 27” i7 iMac and a Mac Pro. The way I see it, I would have a scaled down Mac Pro with the ability to upgrade memory, storage and graphics card as I saw fit. If Apple sells me that machine, I go away happy and they pocket the money. What’s not to like?

However, from recent rumors, it does appear that a Mac Pro “Junior” may be in the works. I like this idea, but if it happens it will be too late for me. I have had my second Hackintosh (built with current hardware) up and running for a few months. Basically I wanted to get up to date, or close to it, with the new operating system as the previous incarnation wouldn’t get me past High Sierra. Had these rumors appeared sooner about the possibility of a Mac Pro “Junior”, I would have seriously considered postponing my new build to see what Apple was actually going to do. But, as it stands, it looks like I will be catching them on the next cycle.